Small animation

[Simon Edmondson]

I had a problem with the project I was working on and trued this. UK residents might recognise the design ?

 

Any comments welcome

regards

simonBerty.mov

[robcat2075]

One thing I find that helps in accenting a musical beat is to make a very visible anticipation movement to the gesture and also making the motion hit a hair earlier than the sound actually is.

[robcat2075]

Here's brief demo of what I mean by using anticipations to go into a beat.

 

On the first two drum whacks the stick has a separate anticipation into each one.

 

On the last two the stick still anticipates into the first whack but swings thru it to use that first whack as the anticipation into the second. It's a somewhat less frantic look than the first treatment.

 

 

MoveToBeatJPG.mov

 

movetoBeat.zip

 

If you look at the PRJ you'll see the motion is hitting a bit before the actual sound happens. This is the sort of thing i can spend a whole day tinkering with! I spend a lot of time shifting things a key frame forward and back, faster and slower, bigger and smaller, to see what has the best effect. There aren't good rules for it, you have to experiment and know what you trying to get.

 

One problem i have is that almost anything starts to look right if I watch it enough times.

[Simon Edmondson]

Rob

Thank you once again for your comments and feedback. I'll look at the samples you kindly provided later. The eyes are a bit tired now after staring at the screen for so long.

I know what you mean about watching something too many times. I have that problem all the while...

regards

simon

[Wildsided]

Bertie Bassett!!!! not seen him in forever

[Simon Edmondson]

Bertie Bassett!!!! not seen him in forever

 

 

It is indeed supposed to be Berty. I'm surprised you spotted him living in Canada. Do they have Bassets Allsorts there too ?

I did an animation a few yeas back of BB dancing with my nephew, to the tune of Top Hat and Tails in an attempt at getting sponsorship for him to go racing. They were interested but, just at that time half the marketing dept came down ( or keeled over ) with severe stress. So we both lost out.

 

I'm hoping to approach Bassets with better results this time.

simon

[RS3D]

Something that might help is to exaggerate his movements more, especially his head. Since he is a cartoon character, you can really go big and it will still work.

[robcat2075]

I've been toying with the timing a bit more and now, in the afternoon, I feel like the keyframes should be about two frames later.

 

MoveToBeat3.mov

 

I notice the Quicktime never looks quite like the playback in A:M and if i upload something to Youtube, that looks different still. Sync is very confusing sometimes.

 

Actually there's a range of about 8 frames that I can drag the keys around in A:M and eventually convince myself that it's spot on.

[Simon Edmondson]

After pratting about for the student I managed to revisit the Berty animation.

Any comments welcome.

 

simonBerty.mov

[robcat2075]

After pratting about for the student I managed to revisit the Berty animation.

Any comments welcome.

 

simonBerty.mov

 

I may have mentioned this before, but here are some notes on shifting a character from side to side..

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=348588

[Simon Edmondson]

Take Two

More exaggerated movements than before,Berty.mov a la suggestions.

Too much, too little ?

regards

simon

[RS3D]

Looks a lot better. Are you going to put in some face movements? With that music intro, I would like to see that he is serious about getting ready to rock and roll.

[Wildsided]

It is indeed supposed to be Berty. I'm surprised you spotted him living in Canada. Do they have Bassets Allsorts there too ?

 

I do live in Canada but I'm English born and bred. Moved here to be with my wife Nicole. As for Allsorts I can't say I've seen Basset's brand but they have equivalent. Mum and Dad usually send me a box around Christmas time though which is nice.

 

He's a nice looking model though dude and I hope you have some luck with Bassets when you approach them.

 

 

Just had a quick thought. You could try finding a video of someone dancing to the tune and then apply the video as a camera rotoscope. Then you can match Berty's movements to the dance. It's how Funimation used to do He-Man

[Simon Edmondson]

Looks a lot better. Are you going to put in some face movements? With that music intro, I would like to see that he is serious about getting ready to rock and roll.

 

 

I will put some eye movements and blinks in, not sure about the mouth yet. Difficult to do an Elvis lip curl with that design of mouth ?

Simon

[Simon Edmondson]

Thank you for your comments. I made the model a few years back when I made a little animation trying to get sponsorship for my nephew. I had to revise it a lot as, fortunately, my modeling skills have improved since then.

 

A friend lives in Chicago and was lamenting the other week that the shop were he got UK brands had stopped selling them, so his Mum was having to send him Birds custard ...

 

I'm not very keen on rotoscoping personally but thats just my preference. I watch the footage sometimes but away from the computer.

regards

simon

[Simon Edmondson]

The eyes move...

 

Tried to add eye movements to go with the body changes. I was worried they were too exaggerated but they didn't show, so I upped them more. Too much ?

regards

simonBerty.mov

[RS3D]

When people move their head to music it seems as though they move it more forward and back (head bobbing) to the music. Yours is more side to side.

Maybe you could try to get it going forward and back and see how that looks.

[3DArtZ]

watching this clip more then 3times in a row could cause one to lose one's mind! lol.

I think I want to suggest not trying to make a finished polished section in one shot like you are doing. I would suggest chopping away at this like sculpter might widdle a block of wood to a finished product.

I would on the hips first through the section, then work on the extremeties and keep adding to it.

How long is this clip suppose to be? if its just suppose to be this short little piece you have then dont try to over do it and over analyze it as a viewer of this wouldnt have enough time to see every little detail.

[robcat2075]

As I look at it, it still doesn't seem like he's moving himself, it's more like he's being jolted by an unseen force. He needs to anticipate into big motions to show that he's applying force himself.

 

Notice that the feet are being pulled off the ground as he sways. They should start planted.

 

Remember that drawing I posted about side-to side? The most likely motion for hips in this situation is to peak at the sides and have the low point in the middle of the travel.

 

But this is a very complicated gesture to do. I agree with 3DArtz, try some other tests of similar brevity and you will learn more from the different situations than trying to polish this one right now.